Relax: The Muppets Were Never Meant For Kids

The Muppets are back with a brand new show! And people are not all that happy about it…

Between rage over Kermit and Miss Piggy’s shocking breakup and the fact that One Million Moms is boycotting the new ABC show for being too raunchy, something about The Muppets is pissing people off before it even debuts tonight at 8 PM ET. I watched the pilot and within two minutes was horrified by jokes about Alcoholics Anonymous and Miss Piggy’s weight. Unfortunately, the fat-shaming continues throughout the entire episode. All of the slick sex jokes and inside-entertainment satire seems to scream, “These aren’t the Muppets you remember! These Muppets are for grown-ups!” The irony being that adults love the Muppets because they remind us of the innocence of our childhoods.

Still, we can’t condemn The Muppets because they went mature. Just because we associate Kermit and Miss Piggy with Christmas carols, Muppet Babies, and the proverbial “Rainbow Connection” doesn’t mean that’s what Jim Henson intended for them. In fact, throughout his career, Henson and the Muppets were torn between two tones: one for kids and one for decidedly mature audiences. It’s only when we look at the show outside of our own nostalgia-fogged gaze and through the lens of its place in Muppet history that we can appraise it truly.

Sam and Friends was the first “Muppet” show and it was produced by Jim Henson and his future wife Jane Nebel. It aired locally on WRC-TV in Washington, DC right after the Huntley-Brinkley Report. This weird programming pairing led to witty impressions of the legendary newsmen. There was also western spoof with jokes about shooting people, absurd sketches, and characters like Harry the Hipster, the ever-voracious Yorick, and a snake with arms named Icky Gunk. It’s interesting to note that Harry the Hipster and Kermit’s antics seem more like the precursors to Sifl & Olly than the current iteration of the Muppets. They’re not for kids; they’re counterculture. Ironically though, many of the bits are straight up commercials. Clever commercials, but commercials, nonetheless.

Even though it was a locally-produced show, Sam and Friends was so popular that Henson was frequently asked to appear on late night talk shows as a guest. Fun fact: Ed Sullivan once accidentally introduced him as “Jim Newsom and his Puppets.” (Oh, Ed.) The most famous sketch of this era is undoubtedly “Glow Worm.” You can click here to see an early version from The Jack Paar Show, but since that vintage clip is missing its killer ending, we suggest you check out its reprisal on The Dick Cavett Show.

Soon Jim Henson moved on from Sam and Friends, moved out of D.C., and enlisted the help of Jerry Juhl and Frank Oz to help create Muppets, Inc. Country star Jimmy Dean asked Henson’s newest muppet, Rowlf the dog, to join him on his nationally televised show. They performed bits, did duets, and were generally good pals. Knowing this backstory makes you wonder if the reason that Rowlf has never been besties with any of the other Muppets is because he misses his old pal, Jimmy Dean. Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but look at their chemistry below!

Up until then, Henson’s work was strictly for adults (or kids who really loved counterculture humor about chess and David Brinkley). However, the popularity of characters like Kermit and Rowlf, et al, was enough to catch the attention of the Children’s Television Workshop. Visionary producer Joan Ganz Cooney was developing a new show called Sesame Street that she hoped would promote literacy by reaching children through entertainment. She asked Henson and his staff to create new family-friendly characters for the show. Henson and his team (which had now expanded to include the likes of Caroll Spinney) created iconic characters like Big Bird, Grover, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, and Cookie Monster. Kermit also had a part to play on this grand experiment of a show, but this time he came with a frill around his famous gullet. It was supposed to make him look more like a frog, but I think it just makes him look fancy. (He looks so fancy, right?)

Of course, Henson couldn’t rein himself in completely. One of the most famous and enduring early sketches on the show, “Manha Manha,” was adapted from a raunchier late night sketch. What makes that song your toddler loves so risqué? Well, it was pulled from the score of a soft core Italian film called Sweden: Heaven and Hell. It was — get this — a faux documentary about life in Sweden that somehow focused on the Swedes’ sex lives and comely Scandanavian beauties giggling in saunas.

Henson wasn’t content to just entertain kids. He wanted to reach an adult audience and he thought he could do it on Saturday Night Live. Henson dug what fellow oddball visionary Lorne Michaels was cooking up and got NBC to give them spots on the new live variety series. These sketches featured debauched, violent, and grotesque characters from the Land of Gorch. They didn’t quite make an impact with audiences, the SNL writing staff loathed their inclusion, and one random guy on YouTube thinks that they are secretly symbols of the Illuminati.

Still, Henson was undeterred. The Muppets would be made for adults! He made a couple of pilots for what would be The Muppet Show. One that didn’t get picked up was more like the show Laugh-In and opened with Crazy Harry (aka the Muppet who blows up things) blowing up the words “Sex and Violence.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek takedown of the censors because, of course, it’s done violently, and later the show would feature this randy sketch about birds trying to get it on.

The version of The Muppet Show that would be picked up was somewhat softer than this and featured all the Muppets we know and love. There was a weekly celebrity guest, musical performances, and sketches that took place backstage. The success of the show inspired Henson to expand the act into motion pictures. Soon, we would see The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The Muppets Take Manhattan hit theaters. These films were all staples of every millennial and Gen-Xer’s childhood, but they also feature sharp jokes and subtly subversive Easter eggs.

Here’s where things get kind of interesting. While Henson was creatively stretching himself with projects like The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth, he was also pleasing the kiddies with fare like Fraggle Rock and Muppet Babies, the latter of which was inspired by a strange flashback dream sequence in Muppets Take Manhattan that became far more popular than anyone anticipated. Still, the super cute cartoon written for pre-schoolers never would have existed without the aforementioned film. You remember that film? It’s kind of a dark and weird and sad film…even with the musical numbers!

After Jim Henson passed away in 1990, the fate of the Muppets was up in the air. The Jim Henson Company continued to produce quality children’s programming and switched from putting the Muppets in original fare to casting them in zany adaptations of literary classics. In 2004, the Muppets (sans all with a street address on Sesame Street) were scooped up by Disney. Since then, it’s been interesting to see how the Mouse has handled the characters. On the one hand, we got Jason Segel’s deliriously delightful film The Muppets, and on the other we have the very dismaying new series The Muppets.

So, yeah, we shouldn’t hate The Muppets because it’s trying to be tragically hip or mature, but we can take the show to task for being bad. Even when Henson went adult, he kept it smart. The sketches we’ve run through are all clever and coy about their messaging. And so, The Muppets hasn’t ruined our beloved felt friends by dumping them into the current pop culture landscape. It’s done them a deep injustice by exploiting them for cheap laughs.